View from our meeting with an Obras Sociales.

Oh my goodness, I can not believe that this Plus3 program is coming to a close. We fly out of the Buenos Aires airport tonight and have a layover in Atlanta until our final destinations home. As much as I want to be in my bed at home and see my friends and family, I am sad leaving Argentina. This trip has been a great experience to learn and grow as students.

Enjoying the view and our presentation from Brisa.

Tori, Elise, me, Isabella, Sarah, Miranda, Ben (L-R)

I know it has been a few days without a blog post, so to all my loyal fans, blame Grant Martsolf. He is solely accessible via email if you have any complaints. We have done a lot of things since my last post, so let me catch you up. Wednesday we heard from Medlife and Ase, a private insurance and Obras Sociales connection and from Brisa, a private company that has their own nurses. Both of the events gave us absolutely delicious food. I certainly ate well on Wednesday.

Some of the food we received and photo of me featuring the ear piece we wore for our translation to English!

In the afternoon, we went to MALBA (museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires) and saw some amazing artwork. I even got to see two original Frida Kahlo paintings that I learned about in my high school Spanish class, so that was a full circle moment for me. We finished the night with an alumni dinner in the hotel. I met Pablo, an alumni from the University of Pittsburgh, and he was so kind. He even allowed me to see his insurance app through his Obras Sociales that I used in my presentation!

The Frida Kahlo paintings that I saw in real life!

Elise, me, and Grant (L-R) enjoying the art in the museum.

Thursday was our big presentation day. I started the morning with a good sleep and breakfast from the hotel. I will never get over all the options that they have. Makayla and I did some shopping with the remaining pesos we had and I got myself a Buenos Aires shirt so I can look like a real tourist when I get back into the states. My group, the Obras Sociales, then practiced our presentation. We went to the University of Austral and presented all of our final projects. I think our presentation went really well and I was so impressed with all the other sectors. It is crazy to think that we learned so much during this trip. We went out to our final dinner at Cero5, which was the first restaurant we wanted to try when we got here. I probably had one of the best steaks of my entire life and the warm bread made it even better. Don’t tell anyone, but Makayla and I got ice-cream before we went to dinner! I still enjoyed the meal and it was great to chat with the other girls. I am seriously so glad I met each and every one of them. 

The Obras Sociales group crushing our presentation.

Smiling because we finished our presentations!

Our group at dinner at Cero5. Delicious food!

This morning, I took my final shower and ate the hotel breakfast of course. I finished packing and we all headed to our tango lessons at IES. I was not terrible, but I need much more practice before I hit the dance floor in Argentina for real. We then ate a tasty farewell lunch at IES and I got to try real Mate in Argentina! We are officially headed to the airport now.

Making and trying Mate for the first time!!!

Monica and Oscar from IES who make us amazing food!

Crupi, my tango partner (also Salma, who is not featured), and I and our entire tango group!

We did so many great things during this study abroad in Argentina. One of the highlights of the trip was definitely the boat ride in Tigre. Going from such a wealthy, hospital established city like Buenos Aires to communities where clinics are miles away and only accessible by boat was very eye opening. One thing many of the speakers said was that Buenos Aires does not represent the rest of Argentina. We stayed and toured a lot of the capital city, but Hospital Fernandez (the main public hospital in Buenos Aires) is not equivalent to a hospital in a rural province. 

The trips to La Boca, Recoleta, and Matanza are all memories I will never forget. I know I could never learn so much from a classroom in the United States. The fun nights with friends and the many, many ice-cream trips bring a smile to my face. This program was seriously such a great experience. 

I wanted to give a shoutout to our two amazing leaders on this trip, Grant Martsolf and Lynnea Lombardi. They put in so much work for all of this to happen and I can not thank them enough. I truly learned so much about the Argentine healthcare system and the culture within this amazing country. I hope to return someday!

Thank you so much Lynnea and Grant!!!!